It was the early 1970s and Buswell was a Cabrillo College student who made money the same way students still earn it now: Working in a bakery.

But as she explored acting, her inner baker began to rise.

“It was like, why am I so good at it?” said Buswell, now 66. “Then I reflected and figured out all the experience from my mom and my grandma started it.”

Buswell set aside aspirations of becoming an actress as soon as she realized food and baking were her passions. But the opportunity to be on television came again when she heard about “Holiday Baking Championship.” The show, in its fourth season on the cable channel the Food Network, pits nine bakers against one another for a chance to win $50,000 in prize money.

Growing up in the 1950s in a less than progressive era, women were expected to know how to cook, clean and know their way around the kitchen. Both her mom and grandmother were cooks and bakers that were only too happy to pass their knowledge onto Buswell.

“It was all about — in those days — getting married and having a family and being a good wife. So my mom would bring me into the kitchen to teach me how to cook so I would be a good wife,” Buswell said.

But that time spent in the kitchen was more than a lesson in homemaking. She learned how to make the perfect pie crust and grow her own sugar crystals in the cabinet of the family’s home.

“[My mom] wasn’t a professional. She was just a really good cook,” Buswell said.

It engrained a love of the culinary arts in Buswell that eclipsed her desire to be an actress. Eventually, it grew into a lifelong passion. While going to Cabrillo College, her first job as a baker was at an up and coming business named Staff of Life Bakery, then a pioneer in natural foods baking. That bakery would transform into the Staff of Life Natural Food Markets.

Despite that experience, she had to buck the misogyny of the era.

“In those days, they wouldn’t hire women in bakeries because they didn’t think you were strong enough to do the work,” she said.

Yet she persisted and eventually had her fingers in what would become iconic Santa Cruz County food destinations. After eight years at Staff of Life, she landed a job at Gayle’s Bakery in Capitola when it was just starting out, staying there for two years. She also had a 10-year stint as the production manager of The Buttery.

She taught culinary arts for 18 years at Cabrillo College’s program before taking a job at the International Culinary Center’s Campbell campus. As a certified master baker by the Retail Bakers of America, she’s molded the next generation of chefs and takes pride in teaching students advance pastry work. Things like chocolate and sugar sculptures.

“When I see my students succeeding in the industry and doing something amazing,” she said. “I have a former student who was one of the first people I taught at [the Culinary Center]. Now she’s gone on to the culinary Olympics.”

Buswell said she can’t talk too much about the “Holiday Baking Championship” because of a non-disclosure agreement. But she detailed working against the clock for the competition.

She found about the audition opportunity through her school and thought it sounded fun. Buswell’s initial audition was a selfie video of her walking through the halls of the school and talking about her experience. She received a call three days later for a Skype interview where she showed some of her baked goods off.

Despite having decades of experience under her belt — including creating cakes for Christmas, pies for Thanksgiving and baking for weddings — competing on the show was one of the hardest things Buswell has done. Compared to long days serving customers and pumping out cakes to order, the show had her and others compete in short bursts of 45 minutes to an hour.

“I can work fast. I can work efficiently. But they’re counting down the time and you’re there and under pressure,” she said.

Tune In

What: ‘Holiday Baking Championship’ watch party

When: 9 p.m. Nov. 6

Where: Santa Cruz Food Lounge, 1001 Cedar St. Santa Cruz

This story has been updated to correct the name of the International Culinary Center.